A Gathering of Companion
by Monica-Ann
Summary: The 10th Doctor's companions gather together to remember


The café was nondescript, and that was just what the group who gathered there were looking for. They were a group who had been drawn together because of one man. And it was now because of him that they gathered. Captain Jack Harkness sat there with Rhys and Gwen, because he didn't know if he had the strength to go alone. They gladly join him, bring their baby with them. Sarah Jane Smith sat next to her son, who was holding her hand, offering her comfort at this gathering. Martha and Mickey sat with arms interlocked, hands on top of each other, silently staring out into space. None of them could speak, the grief so overwhelming.

The door to the café opened and an older gentleman walked in. He recognized the group from when the Earth had been stolen. He also knew why they were here. He made his way over to them, and took a seat.

"He save my life, even though I told him not to," Wilfred Mott said, breaking the silence that permeated the table. "Lost his people all over again, sent his world back to hell and thought he cheated his death. He could have walked away. He _should have_ walked away. But he stepped into that glass box and let me out."

Seven pairs of eye looked at him. Those words hung in the air. No one knew how to respond.

Then Jack cleared his throat. "That was the point sir. He couldn't let you die."

"Not in his nature," Mickey added.

"He will absolutely sacrifice himself to save anyone," Martha said.

Wilf nodded, accepting the answers. "God bless him for that."

Sarah Jane look around the group. "I remember traveling with him, when we encounter the Daleks at their creation. He had been given the mission to stop that moment and even then, he couldn't bring himself to do it. He felt he hadn't the right."

"He could have destroyed the Daleks on Satellite Five and he didn't. He made sure Rose got back home safely, had the whole place wired up but couldn't throw the switch. Then Rose came back and…." Jack could not continue, his voice breaking slightly.

"He tried to save the Master. My heart still breaks for him, sitting there, screaming for him to live," Martha put her head down, remembering that day. "Even after all the Master did, he still wanted the man to live."

"It was the Master who actually sent the Time Lords packing," Wilf explained. "The Doctor was given an awful choice, shooting him or that President bloke, and he shot at something that had enabled them all to come back. The President was ready to kill the Doctor and the Master, he save his life. Went after the Time Lords, he did, to save the Doctor."

Sarah Jane smiled and let out a small laugh. When she noticed the looks she was receiving, she began to explain. "I was just remembering the first time I saw him in this regeneration. At first, I didn't believe it was him and then--"

"--Then I screamed," Mickey finished. "Deffry Vale High School, with those bat-things. Yeah, that was a bit of fun, except for the fact that I got stuck with the tin dog."

"Tin dog?" Martha asked.

"K-9 Mark IV, he's a tin dog the Doctor gave mum," Luke Smith told them. "He brilliant, helped save the world."

"Hold on, I'm still stuck on the fact…what made you scream?" Jack asked.

What followed was Mickey explaining what happened, followed by Jack talking about his first encounters with not just the Doctor's ten incarnation, but his initial meeting with the Time Lord and Rose. Then Martha told all about the Royal Hope Hospital's abduction to the moon, which led to Wilf's story about his first encounter with the Doctor. Soon, the mood had lightened and the stories were exchanged in a free-flowing manner.

None there noticed from out the window, a man stood on the opposite curb, watching them, a ginger-haired young woman standing next to him. He looked on at them sadly, which the girl noticed.

"Who are they?" she asked.

"My friends," the man said.

"Don't you want to go over and see them?" she asked again.

He smiled at her. "Yes, but I can't. They don't know me," he told her. "Well, this me at least. No, best to leave them, with their memories of what I used to be. Come along Amy."

He was walking away, back to the TARDIS, but she stopped and looking back at the gathering in the café. She ran across the street and entered the café, approaching the gathering.

"Excuse me, are you friends of a man called the Doctor?" she asked them.

Jack shot up from his seat, and approached the girl. Curious eyes roamed over her, from the others and Wilf stood up as well to join Jack.

"Yes, my dear, all of us," he said as he spread his arm over the table.

The girl nodded. "You are worried about him?"

Jack answered this time. "We all saw him, very briefly, a short time ago. He didn't say anything to us, but we all got the feeling that….it would be the last time any of us did see him."

This young woman nodded back. She began to speak hesitatingly, "Don't worry. I will keep an eye on him for you."

Jack looked at her sharply, then to Martha, Sarah Jane, Mickey and Wilf. There were tears in their eyes, but smiles on there faces. Jack turned back to the woman, his own eyes beaming. "Oh thank you…" He stopped, not knowing her name.

"Amy Pond, Mr…" Amy said.

"Captain Jack Harkness."

"Wilfred Mott, miss."

"Mickey Smith."

"Martha Smith-Jones"

"Sarah Jane Smith, and this is my son, Luke."

"Gwen Cooper, and this is my husband, Rhys Williams."

Amy nodded as she acknowledged each of them. She then looked back through the window, realizing that the Doctor was waiting for her. "It should be going. I don't want the Doctor to leave without me."

"Oh no you don't. Life on the TARDIS…that is the most extraordinary thing in the whole universe," Martha enthused.

Amy smiled and turned to leave. When she re-entered the TARDIS, the Doctor looked up. "And where were you?" he asked.

"Just needed to get something to drink," she told him.

"Uh huh…" he sounded out as he nodded. Then he looked up at her, a knowing smile on his face. "Please tell me that Jack didn't hit on you," he said, almost pleadingly. "Or that Martha didn't tell you about that time with Shakespeare. That turned out to be quite embarrassing. Or that time when I had to interrupt Sarah Jane's wedding. Or that time I nearly got poor Wilf killed by poisoned gas implanted by the Sontarans." Amy looked at him, shock written on her face. "It was rather obvious where you went. Now, you've met them and we can be off." He walked around the console, flipping switches. She continued to watch him as he turn back to her, the smile still there. He said just one thing to her, though. "Thank you for what you did, back there. Thank you very much." With that, the TARDIS took off.


End file.
